Pflugerville BBQ joint opens doors to 'open carry'

Christopher Carmon Sr. walked into Amigo's BBQ Grill in Pflugerville on the first day of January 2016 with his handgun holstered on his hip.

But far from every restaurant in Texas will be allowing patrons to openly carry their handguns.

Paul Liu, owner of Amigo's, is a second amendment advocate.

"If we don't exercise our constitutional right, eventually that right will be rescinded," Liu said.

On New Years Day, Liu says several customers came in with their sidearms visibly in tow.

"Nobody was shocked or offended or actually walked out," he said.

Carmon is a fairly new permit-holder. Safety for himself and others is his reason for having a gun.

"I don't want to ever have to use it. I don't want to ever kill anybody. I'm a Christian. I go to church regularly! But if I have to protect myself or someone else I would," Carmon said.

Both Mr. Liu and his customer Mr. Carmon have something else in common. While they respect the right to carry openly, they prefer to carry concealed. Liu says if a bad guy comes in with a gun...

"I'm assuming they're going to aim for those people first. And then I will have the opportunity to actually duck under here and get my weapon and actually return fire," Liu said.

"What he said...if you've got a gun, the person that's coming in is going to shoot you first. But I look at the other side of that and maybe the person wouldn't come in. If he saw the gun, he's going to go to another place and rob that. Why take a chance?" Carmon said.

While Liu says his customers on New Years Day seemed ok with his policy.

There might be those who come in for a breakfast taco and get a little freaked out by the guns, Liu says he's got a response ready to go.

"That's the law and I'm not going to restrict someone's individual rights if you feel you're offended by it there's a lot of restaurants out there. You're more than welcome to go to one of the other restaurants," Liu said.